My Supervisor/s

My PhD project

Sirex noctilio male (orange) and female (black)

AIM

I’ve integrated FABI and TPCP in April 2016 under the supervision of Prof Bernard Slippers and Dr Jeremy Allison. I turn my interest toward the chemical and visual ecology of Sirex noctilio. My purpose is to know more about pheromonal and kairomonal communication and if we can use it to improve the actual trap. Additionally, I try to understand better how and why the wasp see it environment.

Background

Sirex noctilio is a woodwasp native from eurasia (Fig 1). It has been introduced all around the word, where pines plantation are present. The woodwasp quickly become a invasive pest where it has been introduced because it can damaged and killed pine trees. When the woodwasp what to lay eggs, it makes a hole with its ovipositor in the bark of the pine. Then it to introduce eggs, mucus, and a symbiotic fungus needed for the progeny development. Firstly, the resin is popping out the tree when a hole is drilled, making the tree weaker. Secondly, the larvae feed of the wood inside the tree for its development, which affect the health of the tree and the quality of the wood. Finally, the combine effect of the mucus and the fungus dry the tree and can lead to its death. In some cases, hundreds of Sirex can attack one tree, and plantation can have a hight infestation perception (up to 90% in south america). All these factors makes Sirex noctilio one of the worst pine pest for forest industry.

If you want to know more about pine industry and the Sirex problem in South-Africa click here to see a nice article and video made by University of Pretoria!

Click here to access the sirex woodwasp working group. A website with a lot of literature and picture regarding Sirex.

Part 1: Attractive compounds

To find a way to manage this pest, I’m trying to find pheromones (from conspecific individuals) or kairomones (from the symbiotic fungus as Amylostereum areolatum). Thanks to the GC-EAD system we do have in FABI, I'm able to separate volatile compound and screen them one by one through the insect antenna. This technic allow me to record if the insect is sensitive or not to each different molecules. So far, I've confirmed the male pheromone found by Cooperband and his colleagues (2012). I also found potential interesting molecule I'll test soon during behavioural tests. These part of the project aim to create (or improve) chemicals lures used to trap S. noctilio in pine plantation.

Part 2: Visual ecology

Furthermore, I also study the eyes of the wood wasp. I try to determine what color can Sirex see? The absorption on different wavelength (colours) is due to a protein called an opsin. Different shaped opsin will absorb different wavelength. Opsin are well conserved across insects. Additionally, they group together in 4 category relying to the wavelength they can absorb: long (green, yellow, orange red), medium (blue-green), short (blue) and ultra-short (UV). After I've made a phylogenetic tree of visual opsin in insects, I investigated S. noctilio genome and found 3 visual opsin fitting in these different groups. My next move is to confirm this result with RNA extraction in compound eyes and ocelli. Additionally, I'll perform behavioural tests to investigate if there is any attractive colour. The final aim of these project is to increase te number of sirex we can trip in the field thanks to coloured trap. Additionally, we are using S. noctilio as a model in evolution of visual opsin in insect (see poster ESSA).

This PhD, due to its diversity, is a combination of different skills as behavioral tests, chemical ecology, bioinformatics, chemistry, mycology, and many more. It additionally involve a lot of different interaction in between academic staff, researcher, industry leadership and forestry worker.

Scientific congress and training

Poster presentation at ESSA/ZSSA 2017

TPCP-CTHB meeting in Pretoria (16-18 May 2016)

MOOC in Medical Entomology with Institut Pasteur (France, 2016)

Chemical ecology symposium in Pretoria (31st of October - 02nd of November 2016)

Annual General meetingof Zoology and Entomology department in Pretoria (24-25 of November 2016)

ESSA-ZSSA Combined congress (3-7 July 2017)

Presentation of a posters: "Identification and evolutionary relationships of genes linked to color vision in Sirex noctilio" (see My link).

Chairperson for the sessions "Nutrients and Toxins" and "Communication".

Genomic research institute (GRI) symposium (10th of November 2017)

Presentation of a posters: "Identification and evolutionary relationships of genes linked to color vision in Sirex noctilio" (see My link).

Annual General meetingof Zoology and Entomology department in Pretoria (23-24 of November 2017)

Presentation of a talk: "Have a look into the eyes of Sirex noctilio".

Chairperson for the session 3.

Academic courses

2017:

Guest lecturer for the module ZEN 363 (Behavioural ecology) under Prof. Christian Pirk supervision. The lecture is given to 3rd year of zoology and is focus on chemical ecology and how to apply it to a pest management program.

Demonstrator under Dr. Chris Weldon supervision, for the module ZEN 363 (Physiological processes) give to 3rd years of zoology.

Awards

FABI award

Best student website 2017

Best dressed male 2016 (The Joker)

Best dressed male 2017 (The outlaw Sirex noctilio)

Best dressed male 2018 (Princess Rapunzel)

Scholarship

2015-2016: Master in Chemical ecology with distinction at University of Lorient (France). During this master, I had the opportunity to integrate the INRA of Versailles under the supervision of Prof Frerot Brigitte. I was analysing the mix of odors emit by crop fields to protect them against an insect pest.

20012-2014: Master in Biodiversity-Ecology-Environment with distinction at university Joseph Fourier win Grenoble (France). I could accomplish an internship at IRBI institute (Tours, France) on the cuticular hydrocarbon in the Asian hornet. I was able to prove than the developmental stage is the major factor influencing the cuticular profile from young larvae to adult (colony, social status and sex were less important).

News

During the last week of November, a team of scientists from FABI under the leadership of Prof. Wilhelm de Beer hosted the first workshop in Africa specifically focused on the invasion of the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB).

For many decades, researchers depended on collections of reprints of scientific papers to maintain easy access to the literature. It was common practice for researchers to purchase reprints of their papers and to share these with colleagues globally.

Tree health experts shared the stage with researchers and forestry industry stakeholders at the 29th annual meeting of the Tree Protection Co-operative (TPCP) Programme at the University of Pretoria on 15 and 16 May.

FABI celebrated two decades of research excellence with a science symposium held on 24-25 January in the Aula Theatre on the Hatfield Campus of the University of Pretoria. More than 300 FABI alumni, academics, Government and forestry industry representatives, as well as many current FABI researchers, staff and students, attended the two-day celebration, themed “The Road to Research Excellence”.

FABI was honoured to receive a visit on 28 July by a delegation from the Pretoria Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, led by Counselor Huang Wei.
They were shown the research work being undertaken at the FABI Biocontrol Centre at the University of Pretoria’s experimental farm.
The Institute has had a long association with China through the CERC-FABI Tree Protection Programme (CFTPP), a cooperative venture between the China Eucalypt Research Centre (CERC) of the Chinese Academy of Forestry in China, and FABI.
The CFTPP arose from a long-term collaboration between the two institutions that was formally established in 2014.

The 2017 Combined Congress of the Entomological and Zoological Societies of Southern Africa took place from 3-7 July at the CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. Over 400 people attended the congress, moving between four parallel sessions covering a wide variety of thematic areas. The congress hosted plenary presentations by eminent scientists, including Professors Daniel Simberloff, Phil Stevenson and Bill Karasov while lunchtime workshops discussed topics such as career

On 7 July, the University of Pretoria’s Rautenbach Hall was transformed into “Piney Town”, a small town in the Wild West, for the 21st Annual Meeting of the Society for the Presentation of Outrageous Findings (SPOOF).
Scientists presented their findings of varying degrees of outrageousness at this year’s SPOOF meeting.
In the "eyes" of the audience, two presentations stood out as most exceptional.
The Best Dressed Female award went to Josephine Queffelec who came dressed as a Native American totem pole.
For the second year running, Quentin Guignard took home the Best Dressed Male award for his costume as one of the villainous Sirex Brothers terrorising the trees of Piney Town.